BBAW 2011 Day 5: Blogging Tips and Tricks

BBAW 2011 Day 5

Today's topic share 3 tried and true practices and 1-3 things you've either recently implemented or would like to try

3 tried and true (sadly I often fall short)

1. consistent content reflecting your true heart
2. use images--for some reason the search engines love them especially if you've given them a file name or caption that is a likely search phrase and reflects the content of the post
3. network--visit, comment, reply, return visits, participate in events, challenges, memes, thons and read alongs

3 things I'd like to try

1. add a follow widget in sidebar--I've added a bunch of blogs to my reader as I passed by this week because of the ease of it
2. use social networks
3. host a meme or challenge

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Thursday 13 & BBAW Day 4

read more entries @ BBAW

Join in @ Thursday 13

13 Ways Book Blogging Has Change the Way I Read

my BBAW day 4 response

1. Book blogging shifted the balance back towards even from over 80% NF.  Fiction had been my first love and remained nearly 90% of my reading until the year I went back to school in 1985 at which time I discovered that, in the hands of a good writer, good stories could wear the guise of NF and that good storytelling was my access to areas of knowledge and information that I had thought too technical, too obscure, too academic or too jargon obfuscated.
2. Book blogging shifted the balance of my blog reading from predominately news & views to well over 70% reading, writing and fiber arts (many book lovers, as am I, are workers in thread: crochet, knit, needlepoint etc)
3. After I started reading the book blogs I started getting to read new releases the same year they were out because I got heads up and got in queue at the library before it was in the high double digits.
4. After I began reading the book blogs I stretched my comfort zone into even more genre than I'd already favored
5. I discovered new authors
6. I started seeing things in the stories I might not have because I am constantly alert from something to say/share about what I am reading.
7. I learned to defend books I thought were being misunderstood by some and to do so with humility so as not to offend (I hope as I try)
8. Book blogging has changed reading from a solitary experience to a social one which was HUGE for me who am extremely shy.
9. Because of book blogging I gave audio books another try and have come to LOVE them which is good because in a few years, due to a degenerative eye disease, I will have to depend on them more and more and eventually exclusively.  My main reason for disliking audio books in the past was impatience because I could read three times faster than the reader.  That is no longer true but I realize now that I was missing out regardless as hearing the words aloud emphasizes the music of the language and opens a new dimension to the enjoyment of the story.
10. I have discovered the world of Indie and found it feels like home
11. I read more ethnically diverse stories.  I always did enjoy stories from ethnic backgrounds different from mine but my encounters of them were aleatory and before the book blogs luck was constrained by a much narrower access to information. i.e. the new books shelf at my library was my primary source of info
12. My wishlist and TBR pile have exploded
13. I read fewer books.  Counter intuitive?   I've already read several of the posts on today's BBAW topic and found every one of them claiming to be reading more than before.  In my case, reading the book blogs and writing my own posts has eaten into the time I used to have for reading.  But that isn't necessarily a bad thing since a case could be made for my life being better balanced now.  Before the web I was isolated and a loner mostly by choice, somewhat due to visual impairment.  Joining the blogging community has given me a sense of belonging I never had before and I suppose I am paying for that with less pages read but I'm not sorry.

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Book Blogging Community Generating Events--Current and Upcoming

Book Blogger Appreciation Week 2011

Day 3 of BBAW and today's topic is on how you do community.  Well, I don't do it well actually.  I'm hit and miss on everything from getting reviews posted for challenges, memes, book clubs and other community efforts to foster discussion on a certain book or theme; on commenting; on keeping my sidebar updated with links to my frequently visited blogs which further cloaks this skulker's activities; and on posting reviews of the books I finish.

To make matters worse this past year I nearly stopped reading altogether and my blog's focus shifted with mine from books and writing to crochet and video by which I got my story fixes by either streaming online or DVD.  Which might have been OK if I'd posted more reviews of the movies and TV series I was watching, many of which were based on books.

This week I'm trying to change all that up.  I reflected on the aspects of book blogging that had once made me feel part of a community and the first thing my mind flashed on was Dewey's 24 Hour Read-a-Thon which I've participated in twice a year since fall of 2006.

Then I remembered with shame all the reading challenges I signed up for last year and how abysmally I failed at completing them for even with the paltry number of finished books I had not posted their reviews and how can you foster community if you don't have anything worth inviting others over to see or talk about?

Library Loot

It's Monday!
What Are You Reading?

Next I Remembered the two memes I've participated in semi-regularly this past year: It's Monday! What Are You Reading hosted by Shelia's Book Journey and Library Loot hosted alternately by  Claire from The Captive Reader  and Marg from The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library.

There's a lot of potential for fostering community in both of them but not the way I've been doing it--posting late Monday evening or even the wee hours of Tuesday for the former and for both spending so long preparing the post like some kind of persnickety magazine editor that to weary and my vision too blurry to start making the rounds.  And of course then the next day preparing that day's post takes precedence over visiting yesterday's participants.

Where Are You Reading?

Word Shakers On Line Book Club

 Shortly then I reminded myself that I had committed to two ongoing bookish activities early this year both hosted by Sheila: Where Are You Reading Reading Challenge and Word Shakers On Line Book Club.  Neither of which I've done much with yet.

Dewey's 24 Hour Read-Thon

While I was at it and since I knew it was due in October sometime, I checked the Dewey Read-a-Thon site for the schedule and found it has be set for OCTOBER 22, 2011. Noon, GMT

Read Your Own Books Read-a-Thon

Read Your Own Book Read-a-Thon
Sept 15 to18 2011
Giveaways are planned.

Runs from 9pm on Thursday the 15th (EST)...some of my posts might be a bit off since I am 11 hours ahead of EST in KST. Sorry for that...anyway it will run until Sunday the 18th at 9pm (EST).

This read-a-thon and others like them were designed for bloggers whose pile of review copies has overtaken thier life and pushed out the piles of book they bought or received as gifts.  But I'm planning to participate to give me an excuse to set aside library books for books I own that have been haunting me from the shelf..

Bloggers’ Alliance of Nonfiction Devotees -- I've been wishing for something like this.  Usually more than half my reading is in NF.  Though fiction was my first love and I eschewed NF throughout my youth I eventually discovered that story were's many guises and in the hands of a deft storyteller/wordsmith story has the power to impart understanding of very arcane subjects one has thought too obscure, too technical, too jargon armored to approach.

They have a monthly meme like event with rotating hosts who set the theme.  They have delayed September's event in light of BBW but it will commence soon after.

Banned Book Week Virtual Read Out

Banned Book Week is upon us: September 24−October 1, 2011.

Here are two sites with useful info a book blogger can use to support the cause.

American Library Association

www.bannedbooksweek.org


The buttons above and below are for two Banned Book Week Events.  I will probably go listen to the videos of readings out of banned or challenged books on the Virtual Read Out YouTube Channel but I can't picture myself making one.  Not without hold the book in front of my face as you see in my profile picture which I never put up at all until a year ago.

As for the BBW Book Blog Hop is all about giveaways.  Participating blogs will all have at least one.  I won't be hosting a giveaway (barring some miracle) but I'll probably go enter some of the drawings and contests for prizes, drop a few comments, collect links for my blog reader and drool over book cover images and story summaries.

Banned Books Week Giveaway Hop

Frightful Fall Read-a-Thon

I love the read-a-thons.  They are such a rush so I admit I was keeping my eye out for more of them on my hunt for community oriented things to participate in in the short term.  I also love scary stories so this is a perfect fit for me.  The host says:

• Monday, October 3 at 12:00am through Sunday, October 9 at 11:59pm (your time zone).
• To go along with the scary theme, this time I will have a requirement.  You must read at least ONE scary book during the read-a-thon.

There's more but I'll let you go read it on the site.

In case it wasn't obvious, most of the picture captions were links to the stated event.  In a few cases early on the link was already in the nearby paragraph so I passed on duplicating it.

Once again I've put so many hours on this between research and post prep, my eyes are worn out so I can't go visiting other links after I drop mine and this post will likely drop into the ocean of blog posts little noticed since everybody likely to be interested will have already turned their attention to Thursday's topic and round of visits.  Also because of all the hours invested in one post, I've sacrificed time for writing reviews, for reading and for blog surfing and commenting.

This is the issue I need to attend to most urgently if community building is at all important to me.

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BBAW 2011 in Full Swing

Book Bloggers Appreciation Week 2011

This is the week when book bloggers gather to sing each other's praises, thank each other for great read recommendations and revel in each other's company.

 Oh and there are prizes and awards.

This year's theme is 'community' and each day there is a topic reflecting that theme to post on.

Today's topic, unlike most of the others, isn't one you can just run with on your own.  You needed to have signed up for it weeks ago and been paired with another book blogger who you most likely didn't already know and then the two of you interview each other and post those interviews on this day and link them on this post.  <--so click there and start visiting those interviews and meet old and new blogging bibliophiles.

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